70 Facts About Your Favourite Movies That You May Not Know.

Everyone loves a good interesting fact or piece of trivia and the world of movies has loads of interesting snippets of info regarding some of the best loved films and characters. Read on for some of our favourites.

1. Stephen King sold the film rights for The Shawshank Redemption for just one dollar.

2. In the movie Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart’s character never said the famous words “Play it again, Sam”.

3. 2006’s James Bond movie Casino Royale was the first bond film to be released in China, all the preceding films were banned by the censors.

4. Frank Sinatra, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Richard Gere all turned down the role of John McClaine in Die Hard before it went to Bruce Willis.

5. Jodie Foster was seriously considered for the role for Princess Leia in Star Wars.

6. The studio wanted Matthew McConaughey to play Jack in 1997’s Titanic, but James Cameron insisted on Leonardo DiCaprio

7. The original Titanic cost $7.5 million to build in 1910-12, which is around $150 million today, the 1997 movie cost $200 million.

8. Quentin Tarantino wrote the role of Jules specifically for Samuel L. Jackson, however it was almost given to Paul Calderon after a great audition. When Samuel L. Jackson heard this, he flew to Los Angeles and auditioned again to secure the role. Calderon ended up with a small role as Paul.

9. Disney rejected the offer to make Back to the Future, as they considered the Mother/Son relationship a bit too risqué.

10. The Most used line in movies is “Let’s get out of here”.

11. The Saw franchise is the highest grossing horror series, with around $1 billion dollars from the box office globally.

12. The background music which plays at various times during scenes in The Dark Knight was produced by running a razor blade down a piano wire.

13. Dan Aykroyd’s original script for Ghostbusters was set in a future where Ghostbusters were everyday figures of society like paramedics and firemen. This was axed due to budget constraints and a rewrite ordered.

14. When the studio was putting together the 1989 Batman movie, Bill Murray was their first choice for the caped crusader. Once Tim Burton was brought onboard he wanted Michael Keaton.

15. During the famous lineup scene in The Usual Suspects, the actors laughing and sniggering was caused by Benicio Del Toro’s farting.

16. Back in 1982, E.T. stayed in the US box office top 10 for 10 months.

17. The cigarette that Sigourney Weaver’s character smokes in Avatar was completely done with CGI

18. For his scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Charlie Sheen stayed awake for 48 hours to give himself a wasted look.

19. The original ending to First Blood was to have Rambo killed off, like the character in the novel on which the film is based. Stallone smelled sequel potential and so had him survive.

20. To make the Space Jockey look even bigger in 1979’s Alien, Ridley Scott filmed his children in miniature space suits walking around it.

21. Darth Vader is only onscreen for 12 minutes in Star Wars: A New Hope.

22. In Terminator 2, the scene towards the end where the T-1000 comes up behind Sarah Conner looking like Sarah Conner, was achieved using Linda Hamilton’s twin sister, Leslie.

23. In The Dark Knight, the scene where the Joker gate-crashes Bruce Wayne’s party for Harvey Dent, Michael Caine’s Alfred had lines, but it was the first time that Caine had seen Heath Ledger in full-Joker mode and completely forgot to say them.

24. Sean Connery wore a toupee during all of his performances as James Bond. In his Bond comeback “Never Say Never Again”, he wanted to ditch it, and play bond older, but the producers said no.

25. Roy Scheider improvised the famous line from Jaws; “You’re gonna need a bigger boat”.

26. Christopher Lee was a real-life British undercover intelligence agent during World War 2.

27. The Chewbacca Wookie suit for the original Star Wars movies was made from human hair.

28. The scene in Alien Resurrection where the Ripley clone makes the long-range basketball shot was done for real by Sigourney Weaver.

29. For Donnie Darko, Gary Jules’ cover of Mad World, which went on to reach the number one spot in the UK charts, was only used at the last minute when director Richard Kelly couldn’t secure the rights to U2’s MLK.

30. The Budget was so low on Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, that when Natalie Portman dislocated a rib during production, they couldn’t even afford a medic. Portman gave up her trailer so one could be hired.

31. During filming on Jaws, George Lucas came to visit and for a laugh put his head inside the animatronic shark’s mouth, Spielberg quickly closed the jaws for a joke, but it backfired as George’s head got stuck.

32.The Good, The Bad and the Ugly is actually a prequel to the previous Leone/Eastwood Dollars movies, with Eastwood’s Blondie gradually assembling his iconic ‘Man With No Name’ costume during the course of the film.

33. Although popular myth suggests that Marlon Brando padded his cheeks with cotton wool to play Vito Corleone in The Godfather, he did so only for the audition. Before the actual filming began, he had a mouthpiece specially created by a dentist.

34. All the actors that played the characters who formed the Fellowship in the Lord of the Rings films has a tattoo done which says ‘nine’ in Elvish, apart from John Rhys-Davis, who sent his stunt double.

35. In the 1976 classic Taxi Driver, De Niro’s iconic scene where he talks to himself in the mirror (you talkin’ to me?) was completely improvised, as the script just said: Bickle speaks to himself in the mirror.

About Death By Films

We love movies, TV and gaming, we also love to read the latest and best news and articles. Our mission is to provide you with an interesting place to kick back, relax and find good quality entertainment.